Germinal-Centre and Extrafollicular B Cell Pathways in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
This 2026 Nature Reviews Rheumatology paper reframes SLE autoantibody production by contrasting the germinal-centre and extrafollicular B cell pathways — their distinct kinetics, affinity profiles, T cell dependence, and therapeutic vulnerabilities — showing that the inflammatory niche, not intrinsic autoreactivity, determines pathogenic B cell fate.